Lincoln's legacy requires upkeep

Illinois marks Lincoln's bicentennial Thursday with expansive celebrations, even as an estimated $9 billion state budget shortfall means modern reality threatens to chip away at a legend.

The state late last year closed two Lincoln historic sites, and more than 70 Lincoln historical markers throughout Illinois need restoration. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in December lost a competition to acquire more than 20,000, highly valued Lincoln artifacts, while the museum remains something of a lightning rod between those who view it as somewhat Disneyfied history and those who see an inspirational tribute.

Those examples illustrate another truth about our most glorified president: Like the man himself, Illinois' stewardship of Lincoln's legacy is contradictory, complicated.

"Lincoln has had his due," said William Furry, executive director of the Springfield-based Illinois State Historical Society, which manages the state's estimated 500 historical markers, including the Lincoln markers. "I'd love to see more support for local historical museums."

Michael Burlingame, an eminent Lincoln scholar who has spent parts of 14 summers in Springfield doing research, also exemplifies the complexity. "When I went out to visit the museum for the first time," said Burlingame, a professor emeritus of history at Connecticut College, "I'd hoped that I'd have been ennobled in learning more about Lincoln after spending two hours there."

He wasn't.

"It didn't seem to have the gravitas and the weight it might have had."

Douglas Wilson, co-director of the renowned Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, said the museum "isn't for scholars." But he accepts its shortcomings because it comes with an astonishing research library that is "a fantastic resource for studying Lincoln."

"As long as they built a new, big, state-of-the-art library for us to work with," Burlingame said, chuckling, "they can do anything they want to the museum."

In December, Lincoln fans lamented the state's closing of the Vandalia Statehouse and Lincoln Log Cabin near Charleston, two important sites. The same month, the presidential library and museum lost the chance to acquire a collection of Lincoln documents and artifacts valued at $20 million.

David Blanchette, spokesman for the $150 million presidential library and museum, acknowledged the loss to an Indianapolis consortium. But he noted that the library already has more than 12 million Lincoln items, and that almost 2 million people have visited the library and museum since they opened in April 2005.

He contends the state has become "even better stewards" by having more room to display the state's 50,000-plus items in its collection.

"This is the first experience museum of this kind," Blanchette said. "You're not a spectator to history. You're a participant. That gives you an emotional attachment to the Lincoln legacy." He called the museum "a springboard of discovery into learning more about Lincoln."

Others who defend Illinois' stewardship point to Knox's renowned Lincoln Studies Center, where Wilson and others coordinate extensive, in-depth research, and Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, in the River North neighborhood, which opened in 1938 and is considered a gem for casual Lincoln fans and scholars alike.

In addition, almost 30 Lincoln-rich structures -- from the Abraham Lincoln Long Nine Museum in Athens to the now-shuttered Vandalia Statehouse -- dot the state. That number excludes the 80-plus roadside markers and any number of sites below the radar.

It's safe to say that no other state has as much Lincoln as Illinois. Then again, he spent 30 years of his life here.

Lincoln enthusiasts said they understand that the state's financial crisis drops Lincoln stewardship down the list of priorities.

"There's still enough Lincoln stuff to see," said Daniel Weinberg, owner of the Lincoln book store.

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tgregory@tribune.com

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